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"On Friday 28th of September we finally launched our iPad trial to all staff. There was only about 3 weeks to organise the event, but the whole thing went very well. Staff left excited, inspired and full of ideas. It really was an outstanding day!"

"Create Google Slides with a photo of where you see math. Share it. The idea here is quick and dirty. If it's a whole process of making elaborate lesson plans we won't do it. Create a plain white Google Slides presentation, add a picture and a slide with your thoughts on how you could challenge students to see math in the photo."

"Leaders in high-performing, high-poverty (HP/HP) schools know that success requires more than just high-quality teaching and learning. The entire school, as a system, should work together to develop a common instructional framework that provides a vision of what success looks like. When a ship loses its compass, getting to port becomes a game of chance. It's no different for a school. When a school, particularly one characterized by high poverty and low performance, lacks an instructional plan or framework, progress will be anything but systematic, and more than likely patterns of low performance will continue. Through the collaborative efforts of the leaders and staff, HP/HP schools focus on three kinds of learning: student, professional, and system. These learning agendas influence each other, and leaders in HP/HP schools make the most of this connection to facilitate sustainable improvements in teaching and learning. Professional learning is the adult learning that takes place within a school, while system learning conveys how the school as a whole learns to be more effective. In other words, as people within the school learn, the system learns."

"When you can get students talking and teaching each other, adding movement or gestures into the process, the students learn and retain more. Whether you call this process "Brain-Based Learning" or "Whole-Brain Learning," the concept is the same. The goal of brain-based learning is to "engage your learners and do it with strategies that are based on real science" (Jensen). Their learning increases because they are engaging more parts of their brain during the teaching process."

"Who doesn't want to improve the tone of the whole day in 5 minutes or less? What better commitment to make in the new year than to positively impact your own life, the lives of those around you, and your school's culture? The science of character strengths and social emotional learning (SEL) is well-documented and quite actionable. All that is needed is a bit of intentional leadership. Click here to download the 5 to Thrive Toolkit! Mayerson Academy, a non-profit professional learning organization, launched the "5 to Thrive Challenge" to encourage education leaders to dedicate five minutes each day over the next month to engage in simple activities that will reframe their thinking and improve the culture in their school. To help get started and frame your thinking, Mayerson Academy provides a free "5 to Thrive Toolkit" that will get you started."

"As a fifth grade teacher I loved exploring earth science topics with my students. Finding earth science apps for a classroom with iPads and earth science websites for students on Chromebooks can help you point students find useful information. You can use these online tools for inspiration for research projects, a place for students to find answers to questions on a new topic, or to simply locate and share a video clip or idea with your class. On this list of earth science resources, you'll find options for classrooms with a range of technology tools. The favorites below could be used for small group explorations of a particular topic or to kick off a lesson with your whole class. As you make a plan for your next earth science unit, identify your learning goals and think about the ways technology tools can energize this experience!"

"Virtual and Augmented Reality apps are starting to hit the market in force. While most of the buzz for these technologies has been for immersive gaming, many companies are getting involved in realizing the potential that Augmented and Virtual Reality may have as educational tools. The fraction of projected VR and AR market value taken up by education may seem small, but considering how large whole market is, this "small fraction" still represents Billions of Dollars. This article will discuss 22 virtual and augmented reality apps for education that are already available, in beta, or still in the testing process. Some of the apps are aimed at parents and preschool teachers, while most are for primary school teachers. Others will interest anybody, including higher education students, and even non-students."

"With Pokemon Go, Google Cardboard and Google Expeditions making virtual reality the hottest thing in tech, teachers may be wondering how they can capitalize on the trend in the classroom. Imagine studying underwater ecosystems and taking the whole class scuba diving with just a smartphone and a $6 headset. The benefits of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) include increased engagement, appeal to visual learners and shared experience among students. Although the immersive experience is enhanced with a headset, the 360-degree experience is still worth exploring. Teachers can take advantage of many of the VR apps using the individual laptops, iPads or smartboards already in the classroom. While VR is changing quickly, the resources below are a good starting point."

"You may have noticed the conversation about ed tech vs tech ed and the confusion about what each is or if there is even a difference. This is understandable. The International Society for "Technology Education" calls themselves the largest teacher-based organization in the field of "educational technology." Wait? They're the society for "tech ed" but they are an "ed tech" organization with "ed tech" standards. Confusing! The Innovative Educator is here to help you understand, as well as determine where you fit in this whole picture.  To follow is your handy dandy guide."

"Integration into the Kindergarten curriculum was a rather loose connection, but definitely a great introduction to 3D printing. One of the Kindergarten writing units revolves around "Looking Closely" at different things and writing about them like a scientist. Many of the Kindergarten teachers like to choose leaves as one of the objects students write about, so I decided to expand this idea into the design of a 3D printed leaf. To support students looking closely at small details as well as develop fine motor skills, each class worked together to make a blown up drawing of a leaf. In order to avoid having the whole class fighting over space to observe and draw around one piece of butcher paper, I set up the class so that I had three stations for the students to rotate around. The other two stations were a Bee Bot coding station and an Engineering Design challenge with Legos (design a bridge strong enough to hold a water bottle)."

"Students in Cathy Hunt's art classes are constantly blurring the lines between physically created art and digital creations. In one project, students created fish out of clay using old pinch-potting techniques. But the project didn't stop there. They then took photos of their creations and used digital tools to paint on the photos, adding color and design without fear that an unknown glaze would ruin their vision. Once they designed their fish, they developed a storyline featuring their creations for a stop motion animation created by the whole group. When the project was completed students had artfully blended the physical world with the digital one, using the best of both, and creating a finished product that can be put online and shared with the world. The impact of that project goes far beyond a shelf full of clay fish."

"Augmented content is just another tool you can pull out of your teacher toolbox that brings student engagement to a whole new level.  For STEAM the letter "S" is supposed to stand for science, so  I thought how fun it would be to have a space STEAM unit.  As a teacher I would use the Quiver Space Comparison coloring sheet to introduce the unit.  Since I am into Augmented Student Interactive Notebooks I would print the coloring sheet as either a 4x6 or 5x7 size that could be easily attached to a page in the notebooks. I would also have writing prompts posted in an LMS, on Bulletin Board. whiteboard, etc..."

"If I had a dollar for each and every time someone has asked me to suggest a great PDF to Word converter, I'd probably be able to shop at Whole Foods every day for a month. It's one of the conversion types topping the formatting pile. My love of organic fruit and veg aside, here are some of the best free PDF to Word converters around."

"In our innovative classrooms across America, students are using technology in ways that were unheard of just ten short years ago. In a small elementary school in Northwest Baltimore, students use their Makerspace to create 3D printed materials, learn to code and engage in other making activities. In another school in Philadelphia, a student fulfills his senior capstone project requirement by creating a "Smart Beehive" that uses sensors and a camera to track the health of a bee colony. While there are some schools of education that prepare pre-service teachers to excel in these types of technology-rich environments on their first day of in-service teaching, there is still room for growth in our teacher preparation programs as a whole, particularly as more schools shift towards digital learning. "Education-Creative Commons" by NEC Corporation of America licensed under CC BY 2.0" This is why the 2016 National Educational Technology Plan (NETP) asks us to refine educational technology's place in teacher preparation programs. It makes the bold statement that "no new teacher exiting a preparation program should require remediation by his or her hiring district."¹"

"We educators may be tempted to believe that once students develop growth mindset, they are adequately prepared to face life's challenges and changes. But growth mindset is not nearly enough by itself to thoroughly outfit anyone with all it takes to attain their full potential. Possessing a positive perspective is but one instrument in what must be a cohesive quartet that meets each child's fundamental needs. Growth mindset is indeed crucial, but not any more or less so than three other sets of readiness. Educators must nurture the whole child. The following four core capabilities are equally important and inextricably intertwined."

"Generating a love of reading is one of those gifts that benefit a child throughout their whole life. These apps and storybooks are a couple of ways that you can use the iPad to develop this passion. Some are beautiful illustrated others have cool narrative while some just use the touch and swipe technology in a new way. Check out a couple of these titles the next time you want to get a kid into reading."

"I was one of the first teachers in my district to receive an iPad to use in my classroom. I was elated. I immediately found all kinds of apps for doing administrative tasks, but I really struggled with how to use the iPad with 25 or more students and only one iPad. It has taken a lot of trial and error, but I've found some free apps that work for me in a whole group situation. Here are a few of the apps I have used successfully."